


Hard

by 13thSyndicate



Category: Free! Iwatobi Swim Club - Fandom
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Rin goes to Australia, Rin thinks about Haru, Rin's slump, but it is not actively being shipped in the thing, rin's pov, this is about as gen as it gets with Free, very short fiction, which is to say you can probably tell I ship the thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-12 09:51:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11159430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/13thSyndicate/pseuds/13thSyndicate
Summary: Everything in Australia was hard.





	Hard

It wasn't just the slump that sent Rin packing for home, wasn't just the wall that he hit that made him abandon Australia and his dreams like they were a cabin going up in smoke. It was everything.

Everything in Australia was Hard.

It wasn't just the language. Rin enjoyed a challenge and he'd been preparing his whole life for this, as soon as he'd decided where he was going to go and what he was going to do. It wasn't just the other kids being faster, or better, or stronger. People being faster than Rin, better than Rin, was just an indication he needed to work harder. It wasn't just the weird food or the backwards names or the fact that his mom and little sister were halfway across the world, because new things were bold and exciting.

But Rin was used to being able to overcome challenges with hard work, with effort. He was used to seeing Results. And it seemed like nothing he did ever worked out properly. Even when he spoke well enough to be understood, he would get words wrong. Even when he got the words right he could still hear Japan in his voice, as though he were one of the tourists he used to make fun of, the ones that practically had 'gaijin' on their forehead like a rubber stamp. He would always get distances wrong, feel like he was being swallowed by how much Australia there was compared to his little island, would always miss a personal best by a half-second or more.

And there was no Haru.

It wasn't like that. He missed his friend, but more importantly, there was no one to compete against, no one to have that friendly rivalry with. The foreign students were even more gung-ho about things than he was, and there was no easygoing banter like Makoto or Nagisa could provide. He found himself isolated, no friends, nothing... and people kept laughing at his accent.

More than anything Rin hated being laughed at. Later in life he would wonder if he hadn't been being too sensitive, if the things he took as pointed jabs were more like friendly reminders, if some of them weren't the only way the Australian kids knew to get under the shell of the red-headed boy with something to prove. But there were enough obviously mean-spirited ones that he could never be sure.

He was a failure, he decided, and everyone knew it. Everyone wanted him to know it. So he packed up his bags and went home and tried to decide if he would ever go back to Australia.

And that's when he met Haru. Maybe, he thought, just maybe, if I race Haru again I'll find myself. If that rivalry comes back it'll spark new heights in me. I can show him how much better I've gotten. Even if it's not much, it's better.

But Haru still beat him easily. And Rin convinced himself Haru was laughing too.

So Rin quit swimming... and maybe, he thought later, just maybe, saved Haru by doing it.

It's funny how things work sometimes.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I like getting inside characters' heads - Rin has a very interesting headspace and it's fun to explore what makes him tick.


End file.
